Luke McCowan's early opener vs Stuttgart sees Celtic set new European record

Celtic's European campaign has come to an end for another season, as most expected, albeit in more spirited fashion than anticipated. On Thursday night, the Hoops won on German soil for the very first time at the 17th attempt, beating Stuttgart 1-0 at Neckarstadion. Nevertheless, given that Martin O'Neill's team had been gubbed 4-1 a week earlier, an historic Europa League comeback never genuinely appeared likely.

The only goal of the night came after just 28 seconds when Junior Adamu played the ball through to Luke McCowan who cooly slotted into Alexander Nübel's far post. It later emerged that this is the eighth time in a UEFA competition that the Celts have scored in the opening minute of a match, which is a new record for any club.

List of Celtic's first minute goals in Europe

Five of Celtic's eight European goals in the opening 60 seconds came during Jock Stein's illustrious tenure. In fact, they did so twice in back-to-back seasons, with Harry Hood the scorer of two of them, en route to the European Cup Final of 1970, dumped out by eventual winners Ajax the following year.

Overall, the Celts have won seven of these eight matches, with one notable exception. This came in 2017 when, amazingly, they took the lead at the Parc des Princes, despite having touched the ball only twice. Some poor PSG play in possession presented the visitors with a corner, which was swung in by Olivier Ntcham for fellow Frenchman Moussa Dembélé to lash home. Their joy was short lived, with les Rouge-et-Bleu roaring back to win 7-1; Neymar, Edinson Cavani, Kylian Mbappé, Marco Verratti and Dani Alves the scorers, who aren't bad players are they?

Returning to the present day, their pretty feeble exit at the hands of Stuttgart concludes another disappointing continental campaign for Celtic.

Looking back at Celtic's European season

In 2024/25, it felt as though Brendan Rodgers' side had taken a gigantic step forwards in Europe. Benefiting from the new format, the Celts reached the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in 12 years, remaining unbeaten at Parkhead, enjoying wins over Slovan Bratislava, Young Boys and, most memorably, RB Leipzig. Up against Bayern Munich in the first knockout round, no one gave the Hoops a prayer, especially after they were beaten 2-1 in Glasgow.

However, six nights later, Nicolas Kühn's expert finish had them on course for a famous win in Bavaria, thereby set to earn extra time, only for Alphonso Davies to snatch victory for die Rekordmeister right at the death; an absolute gut-punch. It is just 374 days since Celtic were going toe-to-toe with Bayern, and indication of how far they have fallen in such a short period of time.

Instead of building on their Champions League progress, the Hoops succumbed to one of their most embarrassing European defeats ever. Back in August, after three and a half hours of goalless play, they were ignominiously dumped out in the play-off round by minnows Kairat on penalties.

The Europa League did bring about some decent wins, most notably defeating Feyenoord 3-1 at De Kuip, the club's first victory on the European road for four years. Nevertheless, Braga, Roma and then Stuttgart all won in Glasgow's East End with plenty to spare, a far cry from last year's box office, raucous nights.

Right now, currently third in the Premiership, there would be no hope of Champions League football at Celtic Park next season. Should they remain there, the Bhoys would need to win two August qualifiers just to get into the Europa League, in danger of slipping down into the Conference League, which really would represent rock-bottom following 12 months of misery, protest and turmoil.